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Scottsdale Beer's goal: 1,000 barrels

Special for The Republic
Published 9:00 p.m. MT July 24, 2014 | Updated 11:05 a.m. MT July 24, 2014

By the last week of August, the five gleaming steel fermentation tanks will have arrived at the new Scottsdale Beer Company, a brewery and restaurant coming to 90th Street and Shea Boulevard this fall.

"That gives us time to start making the beer and be ready for our planned mid-October opening," managing partner Douglas Ledger said.

With an anticipated annual production of up to 1,000 barrels of craft beer, Ledger and his business partner, Tom Davidson, will have plenty of opportunity to work with those tanks. Under the direction of brewmaster Brad Williams, the team is putting together a collection of traditional and seasonal suds, alongside anchor beers fashioned in the West Coast style that tends to have a stronger, more hoppy flavor.

"The craft-beer market has enjoyed double-digit growth nationally for the last five years," Ledger said. "It's still a very small slice of the overall beer pie, but as a part of the whole market, it's nudging two figures now."

In 2013, 7.8 percent of all U.S. beer sales were craft beers, mostly from small, independent brewers, according to the Brewers Association of Boulder, Colo. That put the craft-beer market-share value at $14.3 billion, a 20 percent sales growth over 2012, and increased the volume of U.S. craft beers produced by 17.2 percent over the same time.

"I love to drink the local beers, like Four Peaks, Fate and SanTan, but in Arizona, there are less than 50 microbreweries," Ledger said. "Meanwhile, there are about 300 in Colorado. It's an untapped market here."

Yet beer culture is growing in the Valley. Williams points to a gas station in his neighborhood that recently added six taps to a mini-market.

"It's really remarkable," he said of the Four Sons convenience store on 51st Avenue south of Loop 101 in Glendale. "There's never been a time like this."

Other recent entries into the local craft-beer market include O.H.S.O. eatery and nano-brewery, which expanded this spring from Arcadia into a second location in north Scottsdale, and Freak'N Brewery, which just debuted at Olive Avenue and Loop 101 in Peoria. Goldwater Brewing Co. plans to open a microbrewery by the end of the year, in the former Mandall's Shooting Supplies on Scottsdale Road just north of Osborn Road.

Downtown/central Scottsdale restaurants focusing on extensive beer lists are another popular phenomenon: Sip Coffee & Beer House debuted this spring, Taphouse Kitchen opened in March, Union Barrelhouse opened this month and Craft 64 is planned for an August entrance.

Scottsdale Beer Company is positioning itself as a full restaurant. Chef Donald Fawcett will be in charge of the kitchen, drawing on his experience with Pink Pony, Salty Sow and the former Renegade Canteen. All charcuterie meats will be smoked and cured in-house, and Fawcett, a home brewer, plans dishes that will complement the beers.

"We're a brew pub, so we wanted to stay true to classic brew-pub fare," Ledger said. "But the reality is, we're in Scottsdale, and food expectations are higher here. So we wanted to offer more sophisticated options, too."

That means signatures such as seasonal house sausage dunked in SBC IPA mustard; and a salad of house-cured salmon tossed with kale, sun-dried cranberries, pistachios, goat cheese and hard-boiled egg in herb caper vinaigrette.

Other dishes will include beer-battered walleye fish 'n' chips with house-made malt vinegar, shepherd's pie fashioned with lamb and spiked with SBC Stout and snacks like three-day house pickles and seasonal house-made jerky.

While the beer tanks will be the heart of the operation, guests can expect a sophisticated setting for drinking and dining, in a design from Studio K's Kimberly Harris, who put together the Vig II, Zinc Bistro, ShinBay and other popular Valley restaurants and clubs.

Despite the increasing competition among the Valley's burgeoning craft-beer market, Ledger believes there is room for everyone who does a good job.

"There's a renaissance in food culture, where consumers are examining the sources of what they eat and drink. They want to know who makes it," he said.

"Other beers may have been hot and cold (through storage temperature extremes), have been trucked all over and are 3 to 4 months old by the time the consumer gets them," Ledger added. "At our place, customers can actually touch the tanks."

Details: Scottsdale Beer Company, 8608 E. Shea Blvd.

Carey Sweet covers dining news in the northeast Valley. Contact her at carey@careysweet.com.